The Best Technology for Home Exterior Lighting

When you think about lighting the exterior of your home, different images may come to mind. There are bright lights and Las Vegas-style mansions gleaming brightly in the dark. Then there are romantic resorts, where elegant, subtle lighting creates an atmosphere without adding too much ambient light. And of course everything in between.

What you want your house to look like is up to you. However, the best techniques for lighting outside the home are often designed to create a pleasant atmosphere. You need enough light to provide safe passage for guests and prevent uninvited visitors. Your outdoor landscape lights should also accentuate the architecture of your home and not overwhelm it. You can also retain some subtlety and even use shadows as another design element. No matter how you choose to light your home, understanding the technologies available will guide your design.

To create any lighting design, we need to discuss what you want, what your budget is, and how to get the best look for your home. In general, we recommend against over-lighting your home. This is a common mistake made by do-it-yourselfers.

You can point to a few bright floodlights in your home to light it up like broad daylight. But no professional would design a lighting system like that. the reason is simple. To get truly stunning results from outdoor lighting, you need different types of lights that work together to allow light to illuminate your home without overwhelming it.

In general, outdoor lighting has several goals. One goal is to extend the beauty and curb appeal of your home beyond sunset and show off into the night. To do this, you need well-thought-out lighting that accentuates the uniqueness of your home. However, you also need enough wash lighting to make the entire house visible and avoid dark spots or stark shadows. The key is intentional design with experience.

Another goal of outdoor lighting is safety. One aspect of safety is making sure you, your family, and your guests can travel to and from your home safely. This could potentially extend to road lighting and other types of lighting to keep people safe.

Another part of security lighting is creating a lighting scheme that deters uninvited guests. A dark home is an invitation to burglars and home intruders. A well-lit home with few dark hiding spots will deter thieves and anyone who doesn't want to be seen. If you're using any type of video security, the lights allow you to get the most out of your security cameras even when it's dark outside.

Another goal of outdoor lighting is to make the space usable at night. Utility lighting is more often associated with gardens, patios and other outdoor living spaces. But even the facade of your home can light up for practicality. This is especially true if you have a front porch or large front lawn area. Creating a warm atmosphere is the goal of any lighting, whether it's in a traditional lounge area at the entrance of your home.

First, let's define what floodlighting means. When we talk about home floodlighting, we don't just mean pointing huge floodlights at the front of your home. Instead, we're talking about the basic light in your home, which creates the canvas for all other lighting techniques.

When the sun is shining, your entire home can be seen from any angle. But at night, any parts of your house that aren't lit are left in dark shadows. If you only light from one angle, you can create unsightly shadows on the other side of the light source.

Floodlights, or wash lights as they are commonly called, are the solution to this problem. By providing a soft, even light to the entire facade of your home, wash lights ensure that no area is blocked by shadows. Other lights can be superimposed on top to accentuate specific features without worrying about contouring or creating shadows across from the light source.

Wash lighting is usually done by placing several floodlights in front of your home, not far from the house. Using wide-angle bulbs and fixtures, the combined light of the floodlight covers nearly the entire home. Wash lighting is usually done with soft white light in the 3000K range. No matter what lighting temperature you choose, you need to use it throughout your home façade lighting. Mixing lights of different temperatures on one surface look sloppy at best, and most likely very ugly. The key to home exterior lighting is layering and mixing, so sticking to a single color temperature is non-negotiable.

Once your home's facade has warm, even light, you can start adding layers to it. The most common method is to use bullet headlights. A bullet headlight is a directional light with a fixture that, unsurprisingly, kind of resembles a bullet. Narrower angle bulbs combined with bullet-shaped fixtures provide direct lighting in very specific areas and directions. Typical bullet lighting might accentuate columns, exposed beams, skylights, or other architectural features you want to accentuate.

Another type of layering can come from soffit lights. Unlike bullet lights, which are usually ground mounted, soffit lights are "downlights." That just means the light is coming from above. Soffit lights can be placed above the garage to illuminate garage doors and direct entry. They can also be used in skylights as an alternative to bullet lighting. Another alternative to bullet-type lighting is to place them on top of columns, with the light coming from above rather than below.

The opposite of the soffit light is the well light. Well-lights are fixtures that are partially or fully buried in the ground. Well, lights are generally wider angles than bullet lights and provide direct upward lighting. They can be placed very close to the base of a wall, column, or other feature to illuminate it from below. They are often used on stone or other textured surfaces to accentuate the texture and create a unique blend of light and shadow.

When designing and installing outdoor lighting, the experience can make a big difference to your results. While the technical process of digging trenches, laying wires, and placing lights can be learned, true outdoor lighting design is as much an art as it is a technique. If you want to buy outdoor lighting, please contact us.

TFB Lighting is a professional custom outdoor landscape light manufacturer. The company mainly produces all kinds of floodlights, garden lights, floor lamps, lawn lamps, wall lamps, underwater lamps, wall lamps, spot lamps, street lamps, solar energy and landscape lighting, and other products. There are many varieties and high quality and are widely used in decorative lighting in various roads, squares, parks, villas, pedestrian streets, garden communities, and other places.